Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1887-05-27
CAMAS PRAIRIE.
The Gem of the Pacific Slope, n
Pen Picture dc.
Nez Perce News, May 70, 1871

Nez Perce News, May II, 1871
The tender light of an afternoon sun
bathed the landscape in mellow tints as
we obtained our first view of Cannas
prairie from the summit of the Cotton
wood hill on Friday last. The scene
spread before us was one of entrancingf
beauty. At our feet lay the broad and
beautiful prairie, with its undulations
and gently swelling slopes softened by
distance into the appearance of great,
tranquil inland sea. Stretching away
to the eastward, the dense greenness
of its vegetation merges into the dull
gray of the foothills, which in its turn
vanishes into the blackness of the
timber-clad mountains in the back
ground. The eye at first rests with
feelings CT refreshment upon the 1uxu-
RANT hue CT the vegetation with which
the prairie is decked, until the very
intensity of its verdure becomes painful,
and we turn naturally for relief to the
grand old mountain ranges which form
such an appropriate setting for this
Gem of the Pacific slope.
Looking to the southwark, the snow
capped peaks of the Salmon river moun-
tains loom grandly up, their serrated
submits rising tier above tier till they
are themselves overtopped by the
weird and fantastic forms of the
Seven Devils, whose majestic heights
sharply penciled on the horizon and
clad in all the chaste grandeur of gilt
tering snow, lends to this enchanting
scene an appearance of awe-inspiring
severity that contrasts strangely with
the peaceful landscape reposing at our
feet. The rugged vertebra of the
Bitter Roots rise sharply heavenward.
and form the far-of eastern boundary
of the prairie, while spurs of this
mighty range stretch far away to the
northward and form the rocky-ribbed
C9ur d'Alene mountains, behind whose
towering crests rise the pinnacles of
the mother range, priest-robed with
the SHOWS of eternal age.
But the eye soon tires of the stern
grandeur and unutterable solitudes Of
these primeval hills. and seeks harmony
in contemplation of the green pastures
below. The stage road running the
full length of the valley and by it's
dense blackness attesting the unexcel-
led fecundity of the soil, an occasional
cabin, the remnants of stockade fort
erected in the dark and bloody days of
1877, the villages of Grangevile, Mt.
Idaho and Camp Howard glistening in
the sun and nesting snugly in their.
respective locations at the far end of
the valley, with the limited area in
cultivation hidden from view-from
our elevated standpoint these are the
only evidences of civilization visible
on Camas prairie-the land of Indian
romance and of historical tragedy-the
most beautiful, the most fertile country
in the world.
| Nothing in nature is more enchanting
than view of this romantic spot, oh.
tained at time when the green of the
prairie is suffused with the golden glow
of setting sun; and but for the fact
that, like Dedalus of old, our wings
are of wax and liable to melt if we soar
too near the sun, we would love to
linger upon the beauties of the land
scape, to which, however, no pencil and
no brush can do adequate justice. As
we descended the hill to Cottonwood
and traversed the thousands of acres OF
fertile soil, untitled and crying to hea-
ven for the plow, our determination to
advertise to the world the wondro us
wealth of northern Idaho became like
cast-iron in its rigidity.